Sorry if this is a repost... 7 fatalities... what a horrible way to go. RIP [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXFNUjfmp2M[/ame]
What in the world would cause that airplane to snap other than a stall. Loss of number one and two together? vapor blankets coming off the wings. How bizarre.
Thanks. I didn't know about the incident and didn't see the F-5 that collided with it. Shoulda knowed but I didn't.
An alternate version that I heard elsewhere was that the radar antenna came off and cut the tail off. Either way, a bad day to be sure!
The first thing I can make out from the video, it appears the tail section is gone. A bump on the radome could have that effect.
Formation training is not as rigourous in many countries as it is here and in the other leading AFs where aerial refueling is practiced and currency in refueling is required. So many pilots with 3rd world AFs have never flown formation with a large aircraft. They were probably not too good at flying formation with any airfraft, come to think of it. So you have an F-5 hitting an IL-76, an F-6 (I think) hitting a P-3, etc when they try it. Of course, we did have an F-104 hit a B-70, but that was a while back. Taz Terry Phillips
I witnessed a fatal incident when a Midget Mustang (Goodyear type) got into the wake turbulence of a 747. Large aircraft beat a huge hole in the air that has large vortexes that can pull a smaller and lighter airplane into it.I think that is what happened to Joe White in the F-104 when he hit the B-70. I made the mistake of crossing the wake of a B-29 on final and dirty. Fat dumb and happy I passed too close and low and I didn't think that the C-140 was going to stay together. No one should attempt formation flying without some training and clear thinking.AND you should never cross the wake of a big airplane near it or below it or even at the same altitude.
That's horrible. They probably knew they were done, and had no way to recover..I hope some of them fainted.
It was said that the first event in the list that led to that American Airlines A300 crashing after takeoff from JFK was running into wake turbulence from the JAL 747 that had taken off ahead of it.
Everybody who flies should understand about wake vortices. I have seen a T-38 do 720 degrees of roll before recovering after passing through a C-141 wake vortice (that dates me). Wake turbulence is proportional to mass, so that is why the big airliners have the "heavy" suffix appended to their callsigns and time between landings is extended behind heavies. But then all the pilots, and even some of the none-pilots (me for instance), know that. Right, Bob? Taz Terry Phillips
I would assume the people inside were under tremendous g forces. A big plane like that spinning, tumbling, free-falling is going to be an extreme ride environment, I would think. Looks like the descent was over 10,000 feet per minute. It took 12 seconds from when they came into view to hit the ground. If the filming plane was at 10k feet altitude, then that was a very rapid descent. If they were still conscious, the time it took to fall out of the sky was probably less than 30 seconds. RIP.
I was in a B-24 that made a hard pull up into a chandelle. I was on the waist deck unable to move after my legs buckled . I was pasted on to the deck looking out of the waist window at the ground and if I had to exit the airplane it would have been impossible at what I guess was maybe 2g+ or better. The crew in an airplane minus the tail are subjected to very high forces that prevent any movement. Having been in a collision I know that the overwhelming violent rush (for a better word) of the incident overcomes the realization of what is happening and there is little sense of desperation until it is over. Shock anesthetizes your sense of fear and pain for a while and then if you are a survivor the suffering starts. At least in my case. I don't think that the crew had much time to feel much.
Yes, Taz, you're correct as usual. It doesn't have to be a really big plane either. I was too close to take off behind the Boeing 247 at Abottsford when we left and I was lock to lock on the ailerons trying to stay alive. I had to break right and over the crowd to get out of it. Son, Dana, was with me at the time and he was a brave little guy.
That's an F4 under the refueling plane, right? The Ilyushin has a T-tail, I think... it's definitly gone when it appears in the picture.
Affirmative on the F-4. We sold F-4s, F-5s, and F-14s to the Iranians along with KC-135s to refuel them when the Shah was around. The Iranians have a hard time maintaining them, especially the F-14s, because we have embargoed parts. F-4s, F-5s, and 707s were sold worldwide, so the Iranians have been able to scrounge parts for them, but not for the F-14s. At Davis-Monthan AFB, there is special security on the F-14s to ensure no parts make it back to Iran. Last use of an F-14 was as a mini-AWACS with that really long range radar they have. Not sure if they can even fly one now. TF-30 parts are hard to find except in the US and Australia. Taz Terry Phillips
Don- Yeah, I just looked and they still seem to be flying them, with some rumored to be retrofitted with Russian engines and armaments. Taz Terry Phillips
